


like thunder under earth

by babzilla



Series: lupi ante portus [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cat Cafe, Explicit Sexual Content, Gen, In chapter 2, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slice of Life, Werewolves, Witches, mild pining, no beta we die like men, technically, various supernatural creatures
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:34:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27204598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babzilla/pseuds/babzilla
Summary: •your wolf is in the bushes again• Arfour says with an air of extreme interest.Obi-Wan absolutely doesn’t fumble any of the cups he’s holding as he rushes to the window to spy on the resident Alpha werewolf who, despite Arfour’s words, is notexactlyin the bushes.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi & R4-P17 | Arfour, Pre- CC-5052 | Bly/Aayla Secura
Series: lupi ante portus [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953808
Comments: 32
Kudos: 212





	like thunder under earth

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: none in this chapter— pretty much sfw the whole way through.
> 
> Aaand a special thanks to anemoia (https://archiveofourown.org/users/anemoia/pseuds/anemoia) who had a look through the first part of this fic and helped me with cleaning up the rhythm and flow of it. I owe you my LIFE.

Most times, Obi-Wan’s day goes something like this:

He’ll wake up late and well-rested, or early and cranky, depending on whether Arfour will extend her benevolence to getting out of bed before him to feed the rest of the resident cats or not. If he’s particularly harried, he’ll employ the help of Bear to sit on Butterscotch while he feeds the rest of the cats so that no unfortunate kibble stealing occurs before he manages to get to the electric kettle. Ever considerate, his familiar will have kindly switched on the appliance so that he could get himself his first cup of tea for the day (a heavy blend of smoky Lapsang Souchong with a nuttier Keemun— and a guilty dash of caramel syrup) as soon as possible to get him awake and energised.

Once suitably warmed up, he’ll either go through the motions of getting dressed and tidying up the house before relaxing with a book, or pop out to personally pick up the day’s order of cakes and pastries from the local bakery. By the time he gets downstairs to the café, Arfour has typically herded the cats into their own play area where they will laze about and sleep until someone comes calling for attention. Aayla, his business partner, is usually already there, preparing sandwiches, soups, and salads to be sold that day.

She’ll usually make some comment on him looking tired, and he’ll quip back that she’s as radiant as ever. And then they very pointedly will not talk about how their respective Fett brother has once again all but fled from their presence; their efforts to engage them in any kind of meaningful conversation that might possibly, maybe, _hopefully_ lead to a date thwarted once again.

After their daily stint of silent commiseration is done, Aayla will start setting up to prepare the first orders of coffee that will surely be placed as soon as the doors are unlocked to their modest customer base. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan will start arranging the tables and watering the plants while also surreptitiously checking and strengthening the building’s wards as is his usual, paranoid habit.

Aayla will allow him to do this without commenting on how such feats of magic are well beyond the typical purview of hedgewitches, and Obi-Wan will make no comment on the fact that she never mentions it— thus allowing them to coexist without bringing up topics best left well enough alone.

Then they’ll share a pot of tea (a masala chai or Morroccan mint blend they can both agree on) with an early lunch while going over the fine details that go into running a café in a small town. By two o’clock, they’ll have wound down from debating the next week’s bakery order before finally opening their doors for the day. As always, they will refuse to elaborate on all questions as to why they won’t open any earlier, other than to give their usual answer of: _because cats are nocturnal, sir, please read the sign_.

From there they’ll go through the motions of the day, fairly undisturbed but kept apprised of whatever else may be going on in town by the constant flow of people in and out of the shop. Madame Nu, the eagle-eyed librarian, will come in to enjoy a late lunch with her usual order of soup and a small pot of her favourite blend of herbal tea (tulsi, hibiscus, fennel, and a touch of fresh mint). The old witch will spend a good forty-five minutes casually commenting on the position of the stars and auspicious placements for the house plants arranged around the café— with particular attention paid to the selection of crystals decorating their roots. Then, before she goes back to work, she’ll give a reminder to Obi-Wan about how he’ll need to request a renewal if he doesn’t plan to finish the book he currently has checked out by the end of the week. Because after the business with the picnic and the rogue kelpie, his reputation at the library had been damaged forever.

Between four and six in the afternoon they'll have a rush of students, freshly freed from the confines of academia and eager to indulge in over-sweet coffee while trying to entice the café cats into accepting their affections. With them comes Ahsoka, their part-time barista, who spends half her time sampling wild new blends that are not fit for sale, the other half of her time lamenting on how Miss Offee, the florist’s daughter, will never notice her as anything other than a friend, and the _other_ , other half of her time (an improbable bending of temporal laws as she is an unusually energetic and industrious young lady) pestering Obi-Wan to take her on as an apprentice despite the fact that he is only a mere hedgewitch. 

At which point she will insist in increasingly sibilant tones that:

“ _Hedgewitches_ can’t charm every cup and plate in the building to keep food fresh and at the perfect temperature in perpetuity, Obi-Wan!”

And Obi-Wan will insist in similarly hissing whispers that:

“You don’t know that! Have you met every hedgewitch, _ever_ , my dear? I could be a prodigy— now go empty the dishwasher.”

From six to eight they’ll start ushering the students home and begin a cursory clean-up before the night crowd starts trickling in after they’re done with work. It’s at this point that both Obi-Wan and Aayla will take turns lingering by the front windows, keeping an eye out for the resident pack of werewolves that have to walk by the café if they want to get home, giving the two of them the perfect opportunity to try and stop them for a quick chat.

They’re rarely successful, and when they are, can rarely elicit any more than stilted small talk despite the very clear interest of all parties involved.

After that, it’s all routine until later in the night, when the Fett clan is likely to pass the café again— whether going to or coming back from a nightly run through the woods.

And after inevitably striking out yet again, Obi-Wan and Aayla will finally give in to the urge to bemoan their bad luck to each other while packing up by eleven.

But sometimes… sometimes, Obi-Wan’s day will go something like this:

• _thwarted again, Obi?_ • Arfour murmurs from above his head, her gentle voice echoing in his mind as she stares down at him from the headboard with her large yellow eyes, blinking against the weak sunlight filtering in through the gap in the curtains.

Instead of answering, Obi-Wan rolls over and tries to smother himself with his pillow as Arfour mercilessly hops down onto his shoulder and delicately steps over all of his soft, vulnerable parts on her way to the foot of the bed.

• _I’ve fed the babies, no need to thank me_ • she continues, her soft mental voice lilting and rising as she gently chides him— something which neatly conceals her very real cruelty at depriving him of any means of distraction from her latest interrogation.

That’s no reason for him to be rude, however. “Thank you, my dear,” he says into his pillow, his muffled words only intelligible to his familiar after hearing the same pathetic sound so many times.

• _planning to wallow all day?_ • Arfour goes on, because she’s a cat and she enjoys watching her prey squirm. 

Breathing deeply, Obi-Wan decides he’s given her quite enough ammunition and pushes up to heave himself out of bed. Ignoring Arfour for the moment, he rummages around his bedroom for a change of clothes and then spends an inordinately long time brushing his hair out of the customary French braid Aayla likes to put it in once she meets him at the café. This gives him the appearance of being very busy with his hair so that Arfour will leave him alone— a course of action which she respects because, as a cat, she takes grooming very seriously. 

Temporarily free of his familiar’s scrutiny, he takes his time going through the rest of his morning ablutions and meets her back in the kitchen where she has the kettle going as always, mug and tea caddy at the ready.

“You’re a lifesaver, my dear,” he says fondly, scratching under her chin in that way which makes her eyes squeeze shut in delight.

• _I know_ • she agrees contentedly before settling in to wait until he’s eaten a piece of toast (heavily slathered with butter and jam at Arfour’s insistence) and has put away the dishes before going for round two of her attack.

• _you could have asked him to come inside while you looked for the potion_ • she says after he’s moved from the kitchen to the living room and is straightening throw pillows and fluffing up the couch cushions.

“He didn’t want to come in, Arfour, that was very clear,” he replies, shaking out the blankets draped all over the couch and debating getting out the lint roller. 

• _it was because he smelt like dead vampire. you should have offered to let him use the restroom to clean up_ • she insists, walking across the back of the couch and undoing all his work.

“They live five minutes away, my dear, he wouldn’t have accepted that either,” he says, determinedly moving on to sorting through the stacks of books and magazines on the coffee table.

• _well if he’s not going to come in, you’ll have to go out_ • she says, settling on the armrest to stare up at him, her round face and chocolate fur making her look entirely too innocent. • _that is, if you weren’t a recluse_ •

“I am not a recluse, _thank you, Arfour_!” Obi-Wan says snippily, frowning as he counts the magazines and comes up short. The cat sniffs with disbelief, deliberately looking away. “I go out a perfectly healthy amount!”

He circles around the couch, kneeling down to retrieve the magazine that has slid under it. “And besides, I’m very busy— I run a business!”

• _Aayla can manage without you for a day. if you do it on a Saturday, your apprentice can help her_ •

“She’s not my apprentice!” Obi-Wan retorts instantly, thoroughly tired of that particular argument.

• _then stop giving her tips on her potions_ • Arfour retorts, indifferent to his arguments.

“If I didn’t help her with those, she’d turn half the town into _goats_ with the fumes alone!” Obi-Wan says indignantly.

• _so? the wolves would have to help sort that out. they’d love chasing goats. you could spend more time together_ • she insists.

Obi-Wan pinches the bridge of his nose as he stands up, debating whether it would help at all to explain why it would be a very bad thing for half the town to be turned into goats before finally deciding that the nuances of animal transformation related trauma would be lost on the cat.

Or rather: that she wouldn’t be particularly concerned for the impact of said trauma as long as it wasn’t happening to anyone she cared about.

He checks his watch instead and is glad to see that it’s past noon. A little late, but all the better for getting out of this corner she’s trying to back him into.

“Get the cats settled, please— Aayla’s getting the pastries this morning so I have to roast the coffee beans,” he says with finality, abandoning the living room and heading for the café on the ground floor.

Thankfully, his familiar lets him be as he sweeps through the café proper, retreating to the cat walkways installed high on the walls after she has arranged the other cats to her liking in their playroom. This is, of course, an old trap he frequently forgets about as he absently waters the plants and retraces the symbols etched innocuously into door frames, walls, counters, floorboards, and generally all permanent fixtures of the café. It’s perhaps a little paranoid, but he can’t deny that the reapplication of a little magic strengthens the wards and reinforces the iron and salt lines.

Which can only be a good thing, in his books.

• _your wolf is in the bushes again_ • Arfour says with an air of extreme interest from her customary seat on the window sill, about twenty minutes into his routine. 

The declaration immediately attracts the attention of Bones, a white-masked tuxedo, and Maximus, a grey tabby, who stir from their repose in the back room and streak towards the window sill to take up similar positions of watchfulness besides Arfour almost before he registers what his familiar has said.

“What?” Obi-Wan says, forgetting their earlier (ongoing) argument, and absolutely not fumbling the cups in his hands as he sets them down and scrambles to the window.

Peeking around the lace curtains to spy on the resident Alpha werewolf, he can see that Cody Fett was indeed near the café, but not directly outside the doors where he usually tended to end up when he needed to speak to him for whatever reason. Obi-Wan readjusts the curtains, turning to scowl at the cat reproachfully. He can hardly try to invite the man inside if he’s clearly doing something else.

Turning back to the window, he frowns as he watches the man take a circuitous route around the other shopfronts, lingering occasionally for reasons Obi-Wan can’t discern.

He _is_ getting closer, though.

Sparing half a thought for exactly what the man was doing, acting so oddly at midday, Obi-Wan tucks a lock of his still-loose hair behind his ear and unlocks the door to arrange himself welcomingly in the entryway. He makes sure to shoot a quelling look at Arfour before she can make any comment.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained— and all that.

“Hello, there!” He calls with a smile, stopping the werewolf in his tracks the same way an eighteen wheeler might stop a deer in its headlights.

He winces internally, grasping for something to say quickly before this conversation dies a sudden death.

“Is your brother alright?” He tries again, tilting his head in question. The werewolf had explained the night before that Rex—Cody’s immediately younger brother (but the perpetual middle child to the entire Fett clan, as far as Obi-Wan could tell)—had had a run in with a young vampire and had needed a cleansing potion on the off chance that the vampire’s latent magic interfered with his Were biology.

“Yes, thank you,” Cody Fett answers finally, swallowing obviously as he edged closer to the café doors and stopped at his usual spot, just outside the boundary of the pretty wrought-iron fence lining the café’s forecourt.

“There’s no wolfsbane,” Obi-Wan blurts out suddenly after several excruciating minutes of silence until the werewolf had looked away and he had found himself very much wishing he hadn’t.

“What?” Cody asks, making a noise akin to that of a strangled duck as his head whips back around to stare at Obi-Wan.

“There’s no wolfsbane,” he repeats, nodding to the planters lining the borders of the café and tilting his head back towards the various plants decorating the interior. “If you were worried— it’s just—”

He laughs, now sounding awkward and foolish to his own ears and feeling like he’s over-stepped. But he’s started now, and he may as well see this through.

Wherever that may lead.

“It’s only that none of you have ever come in and I’ve been trying to invite you—you, in particular—in for a drink, and—” he has to pause, temporarily caught by Cody’s startled expression. “Of course, if I’m making you uncomfortable, then I’ll stop.”

“I can’t,” the werewolf says after another lingering moment of silence between them.

“Oh,” Obi-Wan deflates.

“Right now!” Cody almost shouts, knees jerking as if he wanted to move closer and had stopped himself halfway through the thought. “I can’t— right now, that is. It’s— busy! I’m busy.”

“Oh!” Obi-Wan exclaims, suitably cheered, before he tries to secure a more definite promise of future conversation. Given past experience, he’ll need to lock this down definitively or suffer another disappointment. “Then perhaps next time you’re in the neighbourhood?”

“Tonight!” The man says in a rush, hands moving uncoordinatedly before he settles on a pointed finger. “Tonight— there’s. There’s a town hall meeting. Tonight.”

Obi-Wan nods slowly, blinking at the sudden jump in topic but taking the prospect of a meeting seriously. “Right, I’ll close up early then. Same time as usual?”

“No! I mean, yes— same time and place, but. Ahh, a drink? Tonight?” He takes a deep breath. “If you’d like— we could have a drink, after the— we could go for a drink after the meeting?”

_Finally._

Unable to resist, and already thinking of how he’ll lord this over Aayla’s head all day long, Obi-Wan grins. “I wouldn’t recommend tea so late at night, but you could come up for coffee?”

Looking rather like a man staring down his doom, Cody nods. “Sure, sounds great.”

Obi-Wan won’t let himself be discouraged. His powers of empathy are too strong not to pick up on the mingled lust and infatuation, and the general, all-encompassing _interest_ , aimed towards him every time they’re alone together.

So, still smiling, he makes his excuses and lets the man go on his way. As he locks the door again, he can’t stop a superior smirk from plastering itself across his face as he turns to the trio of cats now watching him from the window sill.

“There, are you satisfied now?” He asks, because he personally couldn’t be more satisfied if he tried.

• _you should give yourself a treat_ • Arfour says primly before she starts licking at one of her paws, knowing full-well that she’s just activated the cat echo-chamber.

 _treats?_ Maximus pipes up immediately, jumping down from the window and trotting over to wind himself around Obi-Wan’s legs.

 _treats? have treats?_ Comes the echo of several other small voices from the back room as Mishka and Carlos trot out of their play area to investigate. 

_treat for me?_ Carlos asks, sitting a polite distance from Obi-Wan and looking up at him beseechingly.

Too pleased to be annoyed at Arfour’s rather obvious deflection, Obi-Wan shrugs and heads for the mason jar of cat treats on the counter, whispering conspiratorially: “Quietly now, my dears, we don’t want to wake Butterscotch.”

The cats meow gently in agreement. 

—

That night, after closing up early, everyone in the café is in a tizzy as Obi-Wan runs around trying to tidy his bedroom and dress himself while also trying to follow the numerous and conflicting instructions of his cats. 

It’s not that he’s making a concerted effort to dress up for a town hall meeting while also setting out drinks and pastries to stay fresh until the whole thing is over (except that he is). It’s just that there’s only so much he could dress up for a meeting out in the woods in the middle of the night without looking and feeling ridiculous. He’s not _Aayla_ (who, after hearing about Obi-Wan’s success with Cody Fett, was sure to do something drastic to catch up), he knows he can’t pull that off.

But he also doesn’t want to give the impression that he’s _not_ making an effort. 

He’s been trying to corner Cody Fett for months, finally giving in to his feelings after spending so long caught between the sheer longing the man projected (not to mention his own lingering admiration for the set of the man’s shoulders…) and his total unwillingness to actually come inside the café. Their little meetings: at the vet, at the bookshop and the library, even at the local grocers’, were always tinged with a mutual air of _wanting_ that both of them had always seemed too apprehensive to disturb, perhaps fearing disappointment. But, almost without noticing, Obi-Wan had grown too fond of the man to let this chance slip by.

He had a good feeling about this. And it wouldn’t do to waste the opportunity.

So, despite everyone’s unhelpful suggestions (“For the last time, Butterscotch, the salmon shirt doesn’t _go_!”), he does manage to get himself looking presentable and appropriately dressed for both a night-time walk in the woods and a potential romantic partner (and—more importantly—smelling inoffensive to a potential romantic partner who had the sensitive nose of a werewolf). After securing the cats and deputising Arfour to the task of keeping everyone in line until the next morning, he casts one last look over himself in the mirror set in the café’s small foyer and then summons the thermos of hot chocolate he had prepared for Aayla into his hand; as he makes his way out, he makes sure to lock the door behind him and raise the defensive wards on the building.

The walk to the woods is bracing, but not overly cold in his soft sweater and pea coat, and the time alone allows Obi-Wan space to stretch his senses out. The town has an unusually large population of supernatural sentients; a factor that he had taken as an advantage when he’d decided to move here, but it has the unfortunate side effect of making it difficult to account for everyone that should be in town. It especially makes the periodic infestations of ghouls, feral vampires, and other unsavoury figures difficult to spot and Obi-Wan can rarely say for certain if the beings he senses are where they are meant to be or not.

As it stands, he cannot feel any ill will lingering over the glimmering lights he can see in his mind’s eye— the other townspeople ‘in the know’ who had been called to their unconventional town hall meeting tonight.

He supposes that will have to be enough until they find out exactly why the meeting was called.

Opening his eyes, as always unaware of when he’d closed them, he sees Aayla waiting for him at the edge of the little wilderness that dipped in and out of the town’s borders. As he had predicted, she’s taken Obi-Wan securing a drink with Cody Fett as a personal challenge and has pulled out all the stops. 

She’s decked herself out in thigh high leather boots with a solid heel to go with the black halter-top minidress that’s unseasonably short for the chill air, the yellow silk scarf wrapped around her dreadlocks the only pop of colour in the outfit. Mercifully, she is wearing a coat that goes down to her knees, though she doesn’t look any warmer for it.

As he gets closer, he can see the pinched set of her face, her dark skin luminous despite her expression and giving a tantalising hint of the true blue of her natural complexion underneath her glamour.

“Don’t say a word,” she says as soon as he’s close enough that she doesn’t have to raise her voice.

“I didn’t say anything,” he smiles, completely unrepentant in how he’s been teasing her with his success all day long.

“That was four words,” she says flatly, words curling around her accent as she cut her bright blue eyes at him.

Obi-Wan sighs heavily with false grievance. “So I shouldn’t tell you that this hot chocolate is for you?”

“Give it to me,” she says sharply, zeroing in on the little flask and holding out the hand that’s not keeping her coat closed.

“No, no— I know when I’m not appreciated—” he says, moving the thermos out of reach as he tries to walk around her and into the woods.

“Obi-Wan, I will shave your head,” she promises, stepping in front of him and swiping at the thermos he is now forced to hold above his head.

“What’s the use of those heels if you still can’t—ow!” 

Turning away with a sniff, she holds the thermos close as she brings it up to her face, basking in the steam escaping from the lid. “If you don’t want to be pinched, don’t act like a child.”

Rubbing at his ribs, he scowls with mock offence as he follows her on the small game trail they have to take to their unconventional town hall. Admittedly, he should have seen that coming; Aayla has dealt with their mutual friend Quinlan for too long not to have developed foolproof methods of nipping any teasing in the bud when she’s not in the mood.

He waits until she’s taken several sips of their own shop’s signature hot chocolate before moving back into pinching-distance. 

“Am I forgiven, or must I further prostrate myself?” He asks, holding out an arm for her to take.

Looking at him from the corner of her eye, Aayla takes an overly long sip from the thermos before rolling her eyes and looping their arms together, sticking herself to his side. “Thank you for the hot chocolate, and the warming charm.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says, wilfully oblivious. “We just sell really, really good hot chocolate.”

“Mmhm.”

“Well, we do!” Obi-Wan insists.

“No, I agree,” Aayla nods placatingly.

“Good, then we agree,” he repeats.

“We agree,” she nods again, resolutely keeping her gaze focused ahead of them and not looking at Obi-Wan.

“Good.”

“Good.”

They walk in silence for a few moments, relying on Aayla’s night vision and Obi-Wan’s sense of living things to pick their way carefully through brambles and branches to the Altar Stone located near the centre of this particular four acre patch of the woods. If they see shadows moving in the same direction, whether they’re walking in the shapes of people or not, they don’t acknowledge it. You don’t talk to anyone you didn’t enter the woods with when you’re going to the Altar Stone.

“Tell me again, how you did it,” Aayla asks for the seventh time that day, unable to help herself in the comfortable silence that hung over them.

“I told him about how I’d been trying to invite him in for a drink and he agreed to have one with me after the town hall meeting,” Obi-Wan repeats patiently, unable to stop himself from smirking.

“I don’t believe you!” Aayla replies stubbornly, scowling up at him. “I’ve tried that before and Bly has never agreed to come inside!”

Obi-Wan shrugs, just as he has done every time they’ve had this conversation today. “Maybe it’s a Pack thing?”

Aayla groans, frustrated. “It’s because of you! I told you, you should have just invited him in weeks ago.”

“He’s never wanted to come inside, I can’t exactly force the man!” Obi-Wan argues. “To be honest, he still doesn’t seem too keen on actually coming inside, but he’s agreed and I’m taking it as a win. But you can always try again!”

Aayla calls him something rude in French.

“Vivre c’est espérer, ma chère.”

“ _Ta gueule_ ,” she hisses back. “I should have won.”

“Well, if it makes you feel better— it’s never been a competition?” He says, trying to sound only mildly smug.

“Oh, look— wolves,” Aayla says instead of conceding gracefully, effectively putting an end to the conversation as they get close enough to the Altar Moat that they’d be within hearing distance of the town werewolves’ enhanced senses.

As always, the Pack has gathered there first, arranging themselves respectfully around Cody Fett who stands in the shadow of the ancient oak tree which leans its twisted limbs over the Altar Stone, his face only illuminated by the single lit candle placed on the craggy rock.

“After you, my dear,” Obi-Wan defers at the edge of the moat, but says nothing when Aayla rolls her eyes and tightens her grip on his arm. The siren exerts barely any effort in taking them over the small ten metre moat to the ritual mound where the Altar Stone sits, thankfully relieving Obi-Wan of having to play up the farce of having to cast any sort of floating charm on himself to get across the water while pretending that such things were beyond him.

Stepping up to the loose semi-circle forming around the Altar Stone, they stand quietly to observe protocol as they wait for any stragglers to appear. Casting a look around the little mound, Obi-Wan can see that all the wolves are present bar the youngest and Detective Fett, who has no doubt been left at home with babysitting duty. The exclusion hints at a sibling-related punishment as he can remember that the Private Detective had also been saddled with the task during the last town hall meeting as well— something which the Pack typically took turns in doing. 

Mr Koon, the town’s only organic grocer, Luminara and her daughter Barriss, and Kit Fisto are also present— though Obi-Wan and Aayla currently were not on speaking terms with Kit after his successful coup in securing Rex Fett’s affections.

Obi-Wan was sure that would blow over soon, though he couldn’t say that Aayla wouldn’t be spiking at least one drink when their friend finally deemed it safe to return to the café.

“If everyone’s ready, we’ll begin now,” the Alpha werewolf standing at the Altar Stone calls out into the night, stilling the very air as they all turn to focus on him.

“Firstly, I’d like to thank everybody for coming on such short notice,” Cody Fett acknowledges, looking to be completely in his element as he looks around the assembled townspeople. “I appreciate that these meetings can be inconvenient.”

“Secondly, if I could remind everyone again that the Autumn Fair is coming up and, as always, we don’t want any enchanted items mixed in with prizes for the raffle,” he continues, pointedly not looking at anyone in particular though his tired tone speaks to the fact that there has always been an incident during the Autumn Fair Raffle for as many years as there has _been_ an Autumn Fair Raffle in the town’s history. Or so Obi-Wan has been told, having never been present during one before.

“So, moving on to the reason for this emergency meeting— last night we encountered a freshly turned vampire in the western woods.”

Many in the circle break out into discontented muttering though Obi-Wan and Aayla only exchange a look between them, already aware of the fact after the wolves had stopped by the café the night before.

“As far as I know, nobody has come forward to introduce themselves and petition to stay in town, which means that we have an unsanctioned vampire nest in our borders,” the werewolf says grimly, cutting off all chatter. “We checked the one from last night against local missing persons, and they didn’t match anyone known to the human authorities in the surrounding three counties.”

This, much more worrying piece of information, sends everyone into another round of urgent muttering and even Obi-Wan and Aayla have to share a worried look. Vampires themselves are not a problem, though they currently don’t have any permanent residents of that persuasion, but it foretells of a much more… violent problem if there is a secret nest in town populated by new vampires brought in from outside the immediate area surrounding their town.

The Alpha werewolf holds up a hand, calling for silence again.

“We’ll be running more patrols through town and the woods, but if I could ask all the witches among us to independently scry for the location of the nest, that would be very helpful,” he says, looking at each of the magically-inclined in the circle in turn and very professionally not lingering on Obi-Wan, though the witch can feel the wolf’s attention focus on him momentarily. “But in the meantime, if you have young ones or don’t feel confident defending yourself against a vampire, please take precautions and don’t travel alone if you don’t have to.”

“We don’t know if this is just an honest mistake or if they mean to do harm, but it’s better not to take any risks.”

The werewolf looks around the circle again.

“That’s all we have for now, so if nobody has any questions, or something else they’d like to talk about, we can end the meeting here.”

Turning to his friend, Obi-Wan raises a brow, very subtly flicking his eyes down to her outfit. “Well, what’s the plan?”

For her part, despite the worrying news, Aayla looks incredibly put-out.

“ _Oooh_ , I guess we’ll walk back with Madame Nu so we can drop you off at home,” she says, sounding very disappointed. 

“Very kind of you,” he replies flatly. “I can walk Madame Nu home if you’d like to—”

“Be quiet,” she says sharply, pointing at him threateningly. “With your luck you’d get jumped five paces from the café.”

Obi-Wan very maturely doesn’t point out that that’s technically his aim, though only after he’s safely at home.

Aayla, of course, knows him well enough by now that she wags her finger in his face again with great annoyance, though he doesn’t say a word.

Looking back to the Altar Stone, everyone waits another few moments before the circle starts breaking up informally, no more questions or miscellaneous matters to be discussed. So while Aayla moves to fetch Madame Nu, Obi-Wan catches Cody’s eyes.

“I’ll see you soon?” He asks, not raising his voice in the slightest as he tilts his head in question, knowing that the werewolf would hear him.

Receiving a nod in reply, Obi-Wan smiles as he also nods back and turns away.

It wasn’t all bad news, tonight.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Some notes:
> 
> On hedgewitches: in this series, I’m having them be more like herbalists and potion makers and just all around not-generally-spellcasters. For the purposes of plot.
> 
> Cat speech: only understandable to Obi-Wan, who can speak to all animals, though their speech is simplistic. ALSO all cats appearing in this series, with the exception of Arfour, Butterscotch, and Fiddle, are real cats owned by people I speak to on discord!
> 
> Arfour: she’s Obi-Wan’s familiar and is thus a magical cat and when she speaks she’s got special punctuation and full intelligence.
> 
> French: Obi-Wan says something like to live is to hope and Aayla tells him to shut his face. 
> 
> —
> 
> Come hit me with writing sticks on tumblr so I actually finish this instead of letting it rot in WIP limbo. And pray to god I don’t want to majorly edit this chapter by the time I’m done.
> 
> If you see any errors, let me know 😩


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